The invention relates to a vehicle wheel, in particular for passenger cars, having a rim part for holding a tyre and having a disc part, which is connected to the rim part, is formed from an integral sheet metal blank by forming and cutting or punching and has a central part, which has bolt holes for wheel bolts and a central hole for a vehicle hub, and a plurality of radially extending spoke arrangements, formed by sheet metal forming, for transmitting forces between the vehicle hub and the rim part, wherein each spoke arrangement is provided with a radially extending central web, which merges on both sides into a radially extending side web, bent outwards from the surface of the central web, and an edge web, bent back again relative to the side web, wherein the radially outer ends of the central webs and of the side webs merge into an encircling annular disc rim, which is aligned precisely parallel to the axis or substantially parallel to the wheel axis and connects all the spoke arrangements to one another and is formed integrally from the metal sheet, forms the connecting part for the connection between the rim part and the disc part and, in each case together with the edge webs of adjacent spoke arrangements, delimits ventilation holes which extend over the region between the edge webs and the disc rim.
A vehicle wheel of the type in question for passenger cars is known from EP 1 262 333 A2 by the applicant and is generally referred to commercially as a “structural wheel”, being marketed by the applicant under the name “VersaStyle®”. By virtue of the design of the vehicle wheel, which is produced from a steel plate by forming and has relatively large-area ventilation holes, this vehicle wheel can compete not only economically, in terms of wheel weight, with aluminium wheels but also in terms of design, since, on the one hand, the vehicle wheel has an eye-catching design owing to the interplay between the spoke arrangements, which are formed several times over, and large-area ventilation holes and, on the other hand, different hubcaps can be used together with the vehicle wheel without the total weight of the vehicle wheel provided with the hubcap having any disadvantages relative to a comparable, cast aluminium vehicle wheel.
The vehicle wheel known from EP 1 262 333 A1 forms a new type of formed vehicle wheel made of steel for passenger cars, which has hitherto been produced with only five bolt holes and five spoke arrangements distributed symmetrically with respect to the bolt holes. Other manufacturers have also proposed innovations on this type of vehicle wheel, as U.S. Pat. No. 7,104,611 B2 or EP 1 790 499 A1 show, for example, in which minimal modifications to the vehicle wheel are described and which all start from such vehicle wheel as the closest prior art.
Passenger cars, in particular those of the small, compact and medium-sized category, often require vehicle wheels with 4-hole fastening. The wheel construction according to EP 1 262 333 A2 then leads to a steel vehicle wheel with four spoke arrangements, since a corresponding number of bolt holes and spoke arrangements is required in the wheel construction according to EP 1 262 333 A2.